Maura Murray: A Conversation With Julie Murray

June 4, 2024 Kristen Seavey

Maura Murray on Murder, She Told

Since the very beginning of Murder, She Told, there is one case that has topped my request list, and if you’re from New England (and even if you’re not), it’s probably one you’re familiar with—the disappearance of Maura Murray: a 21-year-old nursing student who vanished from her car on the backroads of rural New Hampshire in February 2004.

If you aren’t familiar, let’s just say this case has more questions than answers and the rabbit hole on this one is DEEP. And don’t worry, we’ll give you a brief synopsis so you can still listen to this even if you don’t know much about it.

But in the shadows of this “crazy true crime story”… is a family. A family who has been put through the wringer. A family who, quite frankly, deserved better.

For the past few years, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Maura’s older sister, Julie Murray, who is finally ready to step into the spotlight as a public advocate for her sister.

And she has a LOT to say…

Who was Maura?

If you read any blurb about Maura Murray, you’ll quickly learn how smart and athletic she was, and, in a lot of media examples, that’s where her personal summary ends.

Maura grew up in a sports family where her older siblings ran track, and Maura quickly followed in their footsteps, rising through the ranks as a star runner.

She was accepted into West Point, and eventually dropped out to pursue a nursing career at UMass Amherst.

But to her family, Maura was so much more than just academics and athletics. This is her sister, Julie Murray:

“She was the kind of jokester of the family. And of course, having three older siblings, she got picked on a lot, especially in such a competitive family as mine. So she developed this quick wit really early to try to combat us. She was a lot of fun, and really clever, thoughtful, and humble.

She always used to send thank you cards to anyone and everyone, or just. Letters for no reason. That's just kind of the person she was. I think her choosing a nursing career is indicative of her personality—wanting to help other people…”

“We joked around constantly. There wasn't much to do other than play sports and do our homework. And so there were some times where we would just make up our own games and play. And of course there was a little bit of that sibling rivalry going on, but at the end of the day, we were each other's number one fans.”

Maura Murray Disappears - February, 9, 2004

In the early morning hours of February 9, 2004, around 3:22 AM, 21-year-old Maura submitted her homework assignment for class via email. At the time, she was a student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst working towards a nursing degree.

Afterward, she does a few searches online for directions to Vermont until around 4AM.

Later that day, around 1:20PM, in between playing phone tag with her boyfriend, Maura emailed her professor stating there was a death in the family, so she would be out of town for a few days. In reality, this was untrue. She then made calls to an information hotline in Stowe, Vermont, and to a condo building in Barlett, New Hampshire; both places she’d been in the past. No reservations were made.

She packed up some clothing, her school textbooks, toiletries, and workout gear, and around 3:30PM, left campus in her 1996 black Saturn sedan.

At 3:40PM, she withdrew $280 from an ATM, and drove to a liquor store. She spent $40 on alcohol (including vodka, Kahlua, Bailey’s Irish Cream, and a box of wine) and returned 79 cans in exchange for a few dollars. CCTV footage shows that Maura was alone for all of these transactions. She also picked up accident forms she needed to fill out for the insurance company for an accident she was in on Saturday, February 7th in her father’s car.

At 4:37PM, she checked her voicemail. This is the last time her cell phone would be used.

Around 7:30PM in Haverhill, New Hampshire, on Route 112, a woman called 911 to report a car accident outside her house. The car was Maura’s black Saturn, and it was off the side of the road facing the wrong direction.

A school bus driver who was passing through stopped to help and spoke with the driver of the car. He offered to help Maura, but she declined, stating she already called AAA. He knew this wasn’t true because there was no cell phone service in the area. She allegedly asked him not to call the police.

Once the bus driver was home a few minutes later, he made the second call to 911 around 7:43PM to report the accident.

At 7:46PM, a Haverhill police officer arrived on the scene of the accident.

Maura’s black Saturn was against a tree on the opposite side of the road with damage to the diver’s side headlight. Internal damage from the impact put the car out of commission. The doors to the car were locked with some of Maura’s belongings inside, but Maura was nowhere to be found.

Also missing was Maura’s cell phone, and her wallet with ID and credit cards. As of 2024, those items still haven’t been located, and Maura Murray remains missing.

Julie Murray: At the time of Maura's disappearance, I was at my new duty station in North Carolina, hundreds of miles away…

We were clueless [about what to do]. We were panicked. No one knew why she would be in New Hampshire. She had just started school at UMass. It was a Monday night in February. There was no reason for her to be in New Hampshire. She didn't tell anybody.

And when we found out the next day, February 10th, on Tuesday, it was just mass chaos and no one had any idea and we didn't know what we were going to do. And we were just calling everybody and it was just mayhem.

Creating Media Pressure

In February 2024, Voices For Justice Media, created by Sarah Turney of Voices For Justice podcast, released the first season of Media Pressure on the disappearance of Maura Murray.

Julie Murray hosted the podcast, and for the first time, the Murray family had reclaimed the narrative surrounding Maura’s case and re-focused the story to be about Maura.

Julie Murray: “It was Sarah Turney's idea… I had met Sarah a number of times and communicated with her on email and social media, and we became friends and we really did have an instant bond because we both [have] missing sisters. So, she approached me and said, “Hey, I have this idea about starting a network where I give a platform to victims and families to tell their own stories. Would you like to do season one on Mara?”

At first, I was like, Oh my God, I can't, I don't feel comfortable doing that. I didn't know what I was doing, but I had trust in Sarah and Sarah had enough trust in me to give me that opportunity.

And I thought about it. I talked to her. Talked it over with my family, and we thought it was a great idea to kind of tell Mara's story in our own words and give her back some of the humanity that's been stripped away and all of the endless coverage of people, like you said, just regurgitating the same misinformation.

So I said yes, and I just went for it. I'm, I'm very happy with the result...”

“I had to talk about difficult things. I had to share some of the mistakes that not only Mara made, but my family made.

I just wanted to share a little piece of the Mara that I knew, I grew up with, I loved with the world.

She's very relatable. And many people have given me feedback saying, ‘I see myself in Mara and when I was 21’, or ‘I also made these decisions’ or ‘I also had an eating disorder’… the list goes on and on and on.

I'm so glad that Sarah Turney gave me the opportunity to do it.”

In our conversation, Julie talks about how the media treated her family, how to engage with empathy, the New Hampshire Unsolved Coalition and connecting with other families, what compelled her step into the spotlight, and what she thinks happened to sister that fateful night in 2004. Tune in on any podcast platform to hear the full conversation on Murder, She Told.

If you have any information on the disappearance of Maura Murray, please contact the New Hampshire State Police at (603) 271-2663, the FBI at (800) 634-4097, or submit an anonymous tip to tip.fbi.gov.

This text has been adapted from the Murder, She Told podcast episode, Maura Murray: A Conversation With Julie Murray. To hear Maura Murray’s full story and all of Julie’s interview, find Murder, She Told on your favorite podcast platform.

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Maura Murray and Julie Murray on a track run together

Maura Murray and Julie Murray at a track meet in high school